首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Better Halves Jerry and Eileen Spinelli met, quite literally, over writing. At the time, they worked for the same company bu
Better Halves Jerry and Eileen Spinelli met, quite literally, over writing. At the time, they worked for the same company bu
admin
2013-03-11
27
问题
Better Halves
Jerry and Eileen Spinelli met, quite literally, over writing. At the time, they worked for the same company but were barely acquainted. One day while waiting at a trolley stop, Eileen took three binders of poetry and dropped them into Jerry’s lap.
"Those were the days when I wanted to be Edna St. Vincent Millay," Eileen explains today with a laugh. A surprised Jerry began to read. "Very nice. This is nice," he managed to say.
"Perhaps I was unfair to her since I saw her as Eileen in the circulation department," Jerry says. "After all, how good of a poet could she be? That compromised my judgment; I only saw half of what was there, and my compliments were half empty. Still, if I’d had my wits, I would have fallen off the bench over her right them"
A connection was forged that day, one strong enough that today the Spinellis are married, and both of them are highly successful writers of books for audiences ranging from young children through older adolescents. Jerry won a Newbery Medal for Maniac Magee and has written other books ranging from the lighthearted Who Ran My Underwear Up the Flagpole? to the beautifully grim Milkweed.
Eileen has written the renowned Lizzie Logan series as well as award winning picture books and poems. Each writes individually, but they share the results of their efforts. "We are supportive of one another and supportive of our dreams together," Jerry explains. It’s a partnership that benefits Jerry, Eileen, and their many readers, too.
Different approaches to writing
Their lives together are worked around different approaches to writing. Jerry writes every morning from 10: 00 to noon barring family emergencies or other commitments such as attending conferences. Sometimes he also writes at night, but that time is optional. "It’s easy to put writing down and hard to pick it up," he says.
Eileen, on the other hand, does not have a specific writing schedule and is more inclined to wait for inspiration; Her favorite writing pieces are picture books, which allow her to "tap into human issues. I am drawn to a focus on language and images, and I have never been disappointed," she says.
One of the advantages -- or dangers -- of being married to another writer is having a live-in critic. Honesty characterizes the Spinellis’ interactions. "We made a pact to be honest," Jerry says about their roles as the other’s first reader.
They react differently to that honesty. "I tend to ball up the paper and throw it away," Eileen says.
"I rend to get more’ argumentative and defend my writing," Jerry says, smiling, as Eileen nods in agreement. "Sometimes it gets very quiet around here,’’ she says.
But each also knows that the other does not have the last word. Instead, their own gut feelings about their writing are the final arbiters.
"sometimes the problem is that I love everything she writes," Jerry explains. "Then I have to try to find something I don’t like. If I spend a year giving her nothing but flattery, I’ll lose my credibility."
Because Jerry is likely to write longer books, Eileen reads them chapter by chapter. In fact, she was the one who started him on his book Milkweed, a poignant account of children surviving during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.
She had told him about an article she’d read about a father who saved his daughter by giving her a pill that made her seem to be dead and then smuggling her out of the ghetto in a coffin. Although he didn’t use the incident in the novel, the idea was his starting point, and she shared her enthusiasm for the work-and her admiration of his skillful writing as it developed.
Jerry’s inspiration in Eileen’s work often comes from a different direction. Sometimes she’ll show him a poem that she has written, thinking that it was meant to be nothing more. Jerry, however, will be so moved by what he reads that he will insist to her, "This is so good that it needs to be its own picture book."
Genuine admiration
That sort of genuine admiration shines through whenever the Spinellis talk about each other’s work. They make it obvious that writing is a special way to make a living. Reading educators and others who care about the written word could be forgiven if they imagined that life was lived on a more rarefied and lofty plane in the home of two writers than it is by the rest of us. But it’s not so, say the Spinellis. "We are only writers 20% of the time," insists Jerry. Eileen agrees, saying, "I do the laundry, clean the house -- we have real lives."
But no matter how real the everyday lives of these two writers may be, the intertwining of those lives that started at a trolley stop years ago left them better off as writers and their many readers are. better off because of it, too.
Jerry and Eileen proofread each other’s works and the final draft is always improved based on the other’s comments.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/iqu7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Someguidelinesthatadvisepeoplehowtoloseweightareseriouslyflawedandgrosslyoverstatehowquicklytheywillreachthe
In2010,PamelaFink,anemployeeofaConnecticutenergycompany,madeanewkindofdiscriminationclaim:shechargedthatshe
FairfaxPrincipalsWantIndoorSchoolCamerasOnedayinMarch,peopleturnedthecafeteriaatRobertE.LeeHighSchoolin
IntheUnitedStatesaswellasinChina,onlychildrentendtobe______bytheirgrandparents.
Whileitseemsprettyobviousthatgratitudeisapositiveemotion,psychologistsfordecadesrarelydelved(探究)intothescienc
Computersareelectronicmachinesforprocessingdata.Dataarepiecesoritemsofinformationthathavebeenproperly【C1】______
Computersareelectronicmachinesforprocessingdata.Dataarepiecesoritemsofinformationthathavebeenproperly【C1】______
Computersareelectronicmachinesforprocessingdata.Dataarepiecesoritemsofinformationthathavebeenproperly【C1】______
A、Heisaverysuccessfulbusinessman.B、Hehaschangedhisbusinessstrategy.C、Heismakingplanstoexpandhisoperation.D、H
Educatinggirlsquitepossiblyyieldsahigherrateofreturnthananyotherinvestmentavailableinthedevelopingworld.Women
随机试题
我国社会主义初级阶段的时间跨度是指()
患者,女性,46岁,未婚,左侧乳房出现无痛性肿块,边界不清,质地坚硬,直径为4cm,同侧腋窝有两个淋巴结肿大.无粘连,诊断为乳癌,需手术治疗。该患者处于乳癌()。
扭剪型高强度螺栓连接副未能在终拧后拧掉梅花头的螺栓数量要求的说法,正确的是()。
非上市债券的评估类型可分为(.)。
下列各项中,依据企业所得税法的规定可计提折旧的生产性生物资产是()。
苏霍姆林斯基认为:没有一条教育规律、没有一条真理是可以对一切儿童绝对适用的.培养人首先要了解他的心灵,看到并感觉到他的个人世界。这反映了教师劳动的()特点。
下列哪些行为应认定为抢劫罪一种罪刑()。
社会主义核心价值体系是建设和谐文化的根本,它的基本内容是指()
Iwishtogohomewithyou,?
Thispartistotestyourabilitytodopracticalwriting.Youarerequiredtocompleteabusinessletteraccordingtothefollo
最新回复
(
0
)